The heat and thirst were starting to affect my
senses, and I was beginning to panic. I knew that
invisible eyes were peering directly into my very
soul. I wandered in a half daze back to the
center of town. As I passed the church again, I
heard that same disembodied voice saying,
"Remember, it's safe in here."

In the distance I saw a building that I hadn't
noticed before. It stood by itself and had a
flag flying over it. At one end of the porch was
a mailbox and I realized it had to be a post office. At
the other end was a newspaper vending machine,
which didn't strike me as strange. At this
point, nothing did. "The front door is
open", I thought to myself, "Flag flying, front
door open, dear Lord, please let there be someone
inside."
I looked up and read the sign on the front of the
building, "United States Post Office,
Pioneertown, California 92268" "They
even have their own zip code. Now why does that
seem perfectly normal."

I stumbled onto the porch, through the open door,
and looked around.

"Anyone here", I said,
with a harsh, raspy voice. "I need water. Can
anyone help me, please?"Just silence. Nothing
but the sound of the wind.

The inside of
the post office looked like it was open for
business. All the usual things that are in a
regular post office. Clerk's window, a drawer
with money and stamps, a scale for weighing the
mail, Wanted posters on the wall, and notices
from the Postal Service. I looked through the
door of a back room. No one there. On a table
was a pitcher and bowl with a ladle in it for
drinking water. Dry as the desert. It was
as if every living creature had been lifted out
of the town and taken to who knows where. In a
daze and a state of confusion, I careened out the
door, back into the dry, dusty street.
and fell to my knees."I wouldn't stay there
if I was you," I heard a voice say. "When things
start to happen. you're liable to get
hurt"

With that I felt invisible hands
lift me and help me to a small shed near the post
office. A sign over the entrance read "Stage Stop" As I stood
breathing heavily, leaning against the entrance,
I could sense and then make out shadowy, ethereal
figures pacing back and forth, moaning and
crying.Then a cloud of dust arose and I heard
the sound of horse's hooves and wheels
rolling. A voice called out "All aboard.
This is the stage for Purgatory. The next stop is Purgat......" The wind
erased the rest of the sentence. Again the sound
of horses and wheels, and when they had faded
away, I saw that the stage stop was still filled
with the ghostly figures.

By this time I was no longer in control of my
senses or emotions. The combination of heat,
thirst, and fear had pushed me to the brink of
hysteria."Please, please get me out of here",
I cried, tears streaming down my face. I
wanted to get back to the car. There, I felt I
would be safe and, if necessary, I could drive
back down that treacherous road, even if only on
three tires.
As I stumbled back to the main street, I saw out
of the corner of my eye, something that looked
vaguely familiar. I had seen years before the
very same thing in the movie "The Gunfight At The
OK Corral" Then
voices shouting and yelling."They're at it
again. The Earps, "Doc" Holliday and the
Clantons down at the old corral."Women and
children crying and the sound of gunfire. I was
in the middle of the original gunfight. I knew
they were only sounds and sounds couldn't hurt
me, but I wanted to get out of that madhouse
before I went completely crazy. I started to run
for the car, had gone about twenty feet when I
felt a hot, searing pain in my right shoulder.
The force of whatever had hit me spun me around
and I fell to the ground. I lay there, gasping
for breath, looking to the sky and then,
everything went black.............